STRASBOURG, May 16 (AFP) - The European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling for Vietnam to release prisoners of conscience, notably two heads of an outlawed Buddhist church.
The resolution adopted on Thursday "calls on the Vietnamese government to release all prisoners of conscience, especially the Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, the Venerable Thich Quang Do and Father Nguyen Van Ly".
Quang, 86, patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), has been kept under effective house arrest in the central province of Quang Ngai since 1982.
Do, 75, his number two, was sentenced to two years of "administrative detention" for launching an "Appeal for Democracy in Vietnam" in June 2001.
Father Ly, a Catholic priest, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in October 2001 for "activities to sabotage the governement".
The resolution asks Hanoi to "guarantee them their full political and civil rights, including freedom of movements".
The EU body "condemns the improper recourse to classified offences related to 'national security' such as espionage, or to those relating to 'abusing democratic rights to encroach upon the interests of the State'".
Evoking the whole range of human rights violations that Vietnam is frequently accused of by rights groups, the EU body also says it is "concerned at the continuing arrests, harassment and detentions of indigenous Montagnard Christians" in the Central highlands.
The document also draws attention to Vietnam's control of information posted on the Internet and to the arrest of several cyber-dissidents.
The resolution quoted the arrest in March "of the dissident Nguyen Dan Que on suspicion of intent to send information abroad by e-mail", adding "this arrest is one aspect of wider moves to crack down on and stifle freedom of expression in Vietnam".
The Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) on Friday welcomed the parliament's initiative.
"This resolution shows the international community's dissatisfaction with Vietnam's lack of progress in human rights".
"It is time the Vietnamese communist government radically change its policy towards dissidents and the religious community," Vo Van Ai, president of IBIB, said in a press release.
The Vietnamese authorities were not immediately available for comment.
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